Midnight, 12 A.M.
Inunaki Highway.
"The Inunaki Highway is really quiet tonight,"
Kamiya drove the rented compact car along the road, with no other vehicles in sight.
Only the forest trees beside the road showed, their shadows twisted and blurred, swiftly sweeping past the car windows, leaving behind odd black clumps in the view.
Kamiya had been driving around on the Inunaki Highway for two hours now.
Yet, he wasn't tired.
In the afternoon, Kamiya had passed through Fukuoka's Miyawaka City, where he slept in an internet cafe's private booth to build up his energy, so he could preserve his strength to dispel the strangeness come nightfall.
Right now, there was only Kamiya inside the small boxy car.
After driving for nearly a day, he was finally getting slightly accustomed to the right-hand driving position.
With one hand on the steering wheel, his left index and middle fingers toyed with a deformed, melted 10-yen coin.
